May 29, 2017 by Charlie Eisenhood in News with 0 comments
With the newly negotiated agreement with ESPN, the College Championships finals will be aired live on ESPNU, marking the first time that a USA Ultimate game will be shown on live television.
The new territory comes with some new requirements: TV timeouts to allow for advertising to be shown during the game.
USA Ultimate confirmed that there will be TV timeouts throughout today’s Championship games. The plan is to have timeouts at set scores (i.e. when a team reaches two goals, when a team reaches four goals, etc.). The breaks will start right after the conclusion of a point and likely run two and a half to three minutes, extending the normal time between points by 60-90 seconds. Typical advertising breaks will also occur during pre-game, halftime, and post-game.
What remains to be seen is how the teams’ coaching staffs use the additional time between points and whether or not full team huddles will be allowed. Coaches in professional sports with TV timeouts often use the set breaks strategically in order to avoid using a timeout of their own.
You can watch the Championship games (and the commercials) today at 2:30 PM (Women’s) and 5 PM (Men’s) Eastern live on ESPNU
